If I know you personally and haven't invited you here -- well, there's a reason for that, so kindly go on back to whichever part of my life you belong in. Trust me, this is for your own good. Thank you.

Wednesday, August 31, 2005

News Stories, List of Five, Katrina and CBC

While reading the Freep this morning I became intrigued by this story about missing women who do NOT make the headlines. I remember when Elizabeth Smart went missing that I had seen a story about an adorable African-American girl who went missing in Wisconsin (Milwaukee, perhaps?). Her mother's boyfriend had walked her to school and left her on the sidewalk directly in front of the school. The poor little girl never made it inside and the boyfriend was never even considered as a suspect. How many of us heard about that little girl? And any subsequent news? I saw that one report, but I never heard anything more. The media followed the Elizabeth Smart story, the Jon-Benet Ramsey story, the Danielle Van Damme story until the bitter end, and in the case of Jon-Benet they're still following it periodically since there was no bitter end.

And yesterday at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch I was reading a story which discussed how the police in that area basically ignored allegations of rape when the victim was either a known prostitute or drug user, and how doing this can hide the work of a serial killer. It was the third in a series on the practice at the St. Louis police department to use memos instead of official police reports and after a while the memos were shredded and never counted in statistics. And it wasn't just prostitutes and drug users, but child abuse cases too, as shown in this story. Mind-boggling stuff.

I finally have come up my List of Five. You know the Friends List where you have five celebrities for whom you're given a free pass assuming that there's a snowball's chance in hell of meeting them and them being in the slightest bit interested in you? You know, that list. The people on my list are: Gary Sinise, Peter Wingfield, Jason Statham, Edward Norton (except when he's in The Italian Job and acting all icky) and Ed Harris. John Cusack gets an honorable mention, because although I've had a thing for him for years, he's a Chicago Blackhawks fan and although that's not as bad as say, someone being a Colorado Avalanche fan (no offense, Heather ;-), it's not a good thing. Besides when I saw him at a game (it was televised and he had seats right on the glass, as you would expect) he looked like heck.

I see old footage of hockey and baseball games and people back in the 1950s dressed to attend sporting events and I think there's something to be said for not looking like you rolled out of bed when going out in public. Sure, if you're just running to the store for a carton of milk, that's different, but when you have tickets in the front row you might want to appear as if you had at least bathed recently. (See Kid Rock at Pistons games last year – can you at least wash your damn stringy nasty hair? – I'm thinking he might be cute, but who could tell through the nastiness of that hair.)

The remnants of Katrina hit the Detroit area yesterday evening in the form of nasty humidity and rain – nothing that compares in the very slightest to the devastation she wrought on New Orleans and Biloxi. I was reading an article about how New Orleans will probably be attacked by a wrecking ball next as with all the floodwaters that a lot of houses will be unsalvageable thanks to mold and structural damage. If you're so inclined, go to the Red Cross' site and donate what you can to help those poor people out.

My favorite radio station is locked out and it's making me crazy. I listen to CBC Radio Two which is Canadian public radio, essentially. Radio Two plays music all day long, mostly classical (until 10:00 p.m. when it goes into jazz) with breaks at the top of most hours for the news. It starts my day off right, at least, it did when there wasn't a lockout. The station is still broadcasting, but it's just straight music, nobody to tell you to what you're listening or giving you the little stories about each piece of music or composer or conductor which I so enjoy. And since I don't believe in crossing picket lines, I haven't been listening. Thankfully, Detroit finally got its very own almost all classical music station (they play jazz at night, and unfortunately, prior to 5:00 a.m., which does not make for good wake-up music for me) at 90.9 FM. I have found that they buy their programming (at least the classical portion of "Through the Night) because it's EXACTLY the same as what 89.3 WHFR plays in the morning. HFR seems to be a second or two behind 90.9 though. I confess though that the second the lockout is over and my CBC is back on air, I'll be giving up 90.9 and 89.3 because I just prefer the CBC's programming and radio hosts. It's nice to have an option, but unless my fave radio hosts don't return, I don't see why I would give it up.

A few years back I was driving to Ottawa and it was so nice to be able to listen to the same station all across the country. Granted I had to find the station in each new city, but it made the drive that much more enjoyable knowing I could listen to Tom Allen from 6:00-10:00, Shelly Solmes from 10:00-3:00 and then Jurgen Gothe from 3:00-6:00 p.m. The schedule is different now with the addition of Eric Friesen from 12:00-3:00 and everybody cut down to three hours total, but at least I know Tom, Shelly and Jurgen are out there the next time I need to drive long hours in Canada. At least, they should be out there to keep me company. The good news is that CBC and CMG (which represents the employees) are going to start negotiating again – for the first time since the lockout. I hope they accomplish something soon.

The gym was not on my agenda for the past two days. Monday I just plain didn't feel like going, so I stayed home and did ab work and leg lifts and shit like that. Yesterday my car was in the shop (loose heat shield) so instead of going to the gym and doing an hour on the treadmill, I walked the 2.5 miles to the garage to get my car and then played with my weights. I really wish I had been paying attention to the news yesterday though because I would have gone to the gas station and filled up before gas prices hit $3.00/gallon. *sigh* Maybe I should just walk to the gym and then walk home. It's a good two-plus miles to the gym, so that would give me almost five miles of walking. Or I could just go back to walking my 7-mile route and that would save me the gas I use driving to the gym. I'm glad I got my airline ticket to Vegas before gas prices rose like this! I have a feeling though this will put a serious crimp in my plans to go Mexico City for the last race of the season if I can't get a reasonable price on a ticket.

And that will bum me out, not just because I'll be missing out on a race, but because I was planning on using up a good week of vacation time on visiting my family down there. And I haven't been to Mexico City in way too many years and I love that place. I also loved Cairo, Egypt, so I have a thing for overcrowded third-world cities.

Don't forget to do what you can for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, even if it's just saying a prayer, sending good vibes, thinking good thoughts, etc., because I know not everybody can afford to give money.

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About Me

My favorite season is summer because I used to spend it traveling the continent going to Champ Car races, but thanks to a certain selfish pig of a Hoosier (TFG), I no longer have what I loved most in this world. I hate big heavy winter coats that make it uncomfortable getting into the car.